Research by the University of Exeter has revealed that ants have a big impact on their local environment as a result of their activity as ‘ecosystem engineers’ and predators.
The study, published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, found that ants have two distinct effects on their local environment. (more…)
*The 5th annual Microsoft Firenze BXT Student Innovation Competition brings together business, design and engineering students to showcase how innovation happens in the real world. This year’s finals take place this weekend on Microsoft’s Redmond campus*
REDMOND, Wash. – Feb. 4, 2011 – Midway through last year’s Microsoft Firenze BXT student innovation competition, James Liu realized something he wasn’t expecting.
He wanted to work at Microsoft. (more…)
Russia’s computer security company Kaspersky Lab, the fourth-largest global antivirus vendor, sold a large shareholding to US-based private equity firm General Atlantic. GA will become the second-largest shareholder of the Russian company, giving Kaspersky Lab an opportunity to improve its positions on the US market. The financial details of the deal have not been exposed yet, although it reportedly goes about 15-17 percent of the shares of the Russian company evaluated at $200 million. (more…)
*New Metrics Offer Detailed Market Intelligence for UK Industry*
London, UK, 13 January, 2010: comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the UK launch of 
Video Metrix 2.0, the next generation of comScore’s industry leading online video measurement service. The new service offers several enhancements – including reporting of online video ad impressions – designed to better align with the realities of today’s online video landscape. For more information on Video Metrix 2.0, please visit www.videometrix2.com. (more…)
*The Global Plants Initiative Meets at the Smithsonian in Panama Jan. 11-13*
For centuries, jungle explorers from Europe and North America have created art of the plants they discover—pressing bright flowers and green tendrils onto herbarium sheets for prestigious museums and plant collections. But scientists in the most biodiverse countries lack easy access to this basic information needed to identify plants. The Global Plants Initiative, meeting Jan. 11-13 at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, catapults biodiversity research to a new level, sharing plant collections in a massive online database of high-resolution scans. (more…)
*Sequencing of ancient DNA reveals new hominin population that is neither Neanderthal nor modern human*
Researchers have discovered evidence of a distinct group of “archaic” humans existing outside of Africa more than 30,000 years ago at a time when Neanderthals are thought to have dominated Europe and Asia. But genetic testing shows that members of this new group were not Neanderthals, and they interbred with the ancestors of some modern humans who are alive today.
The journal Nature reported the finding this week. The National Science Foundation’s Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences Division partially funded the research. (more…)
*Achim Berg, Microsoft’s vice president of business and marketing for Windows Phones, discusses the momentum, strengths and challenges of the company’s newly launched Windows Phone 7.*
REDMOND, Wash. – Dec. 21, 2010 – There is one phrase that Achim Berg uses repeatedly to describe the new Windows Phone 7.
“It’s a different kind of phone, fast and easy,” says Berg, vice president of business and marketing for Windows Phones. It’s a sentence he relates with enthusiasm daily, whether he’s giving a Windows Phone 7 demonstration to a large crowd, or showing off his phone to someone he’s just met. (more…)
ANN ARBOR, Mich.— A new University of Michigan study finds that Americans are much more likely to exaggerate their attendance at religious services than are people in many other countries.
“Americans have long been viewed as exceptionally religious compared to other nations in the developed world,” said Philip Brenner, a research fellow at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR) and the author of the study. “But this study suggests that American religiosity may be exceptional not in terms of actual behavior, but rather in terms of identity. (more…)
